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TYPICAL QUESTIONS IN INTERVIEWS

Self-assessment brings the ghost in us to the fore. The prospect of facing our inadequacies is very scary. As such we run away from self-assessment exercises. Take my word; once the initial challenge of facing the ghost is over, one discovers the beauty in oneself. Honesty is the key to success in any interview. The strength and weakness discovered through self examination will exude confidence in you and it will give energy to overcome all the traps created by interviewers to corner you.

There are certain typical questions that come up very often in interviews. Some of them are listed below along with a suggested approach to tackle them.

Tell us about yourself This is a general question in which you can say almost anything about yourself. Unfortunately, most of the interviewees use the opportunity to recount their bio-data, which is already there in front of the interviewer. Prepare yourself for such a question so that you can mention those things, which are not given, in your bio-data. These could be your traits, special qualities, achievements, aspirations, motivations and ambitions. A one or two sentence answer which is normally given by interviewees conveys the impression that there is little they have to say about themselves. You should be able to say a lot without being verbose or self-opinionated. Keep a watch on the verbal and non-verbal reaction of the interviewer.

What are your strengths and weaknesses? This question is asked to ascertain how much you know about yourself. A person who has a good knowledge about himself or herself is likely to be more effective in life. However, many interviewees get bowled over by this question because they might not have given thought to it, or they shy away from the fear of blowing their own trumpet. Do a detailed self-analysis of your strength and weaknesses and make a sincere and honest attempt to narrate your major strengths and weaknesses.

It may look very simple but this question reveals your attitude towards life, your confidence level of being yourself and self-understanding. It is better not to fake the answer. Remember your non-verbal cues will reveal your insincerity. Unless you are an expert at faking your body
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language never take the risk of telling a lie. This is a great opportunity of self-assessment, it is better to work on assessing your ability. Self-assessment brings the ghost in us to the forefront. The prospects of facing our inadequacies are very scary. As such we run away from selfassessment exercises. Take my word once the initial challenge of facing the ghost is over, one discovers the beauty in oneself. Honesty is the key success in any interview. The strength and weakness discovered through self examination will exude confidence in you and it will give energy to overcome all the traps created by interviewers to corner you. It is like a batsman, who does not understand his strength, flashes at the wrong delivery and gets caught at the slip. If you have to play to your strength, thorough self understanding only can make you do that. You need to substantiate your claim if you have said ability to work in a team. However trivial it may seem to you, it is good enough. One boy gave an example or organizing to lay claim on his organizational quality and he was accepted. If you find something else beyond the list, go ahead and write it down for discussion with your parents, teacher or friends who understand you but are not very critical about you.

Be honest with yourself, and do not use any clich answer for weaknesses like I hate people who do not take work seriously. While answering your strengths, you should not sound cocky or pompous but still you have to convey your strength. Your inner confidence should be without any pompous display of bravado. For that, try to talk in a very soft tone without using adjectives, it is better to use facts Instead of saying I have leadership quality say, in capacity, as the class cricket team captain, our class went to the semi final in our college tournament. Practice speaking softly but loudly in front of the mirror. You can copy somebody who you think has these qualities. Use your morning walk or other period of loneliness for a self assessment. You can be creative too in answering these questions. Discover thyself and you can bring in wonders.

Write a commercial about you

Sample Commercials:

The key to handling a request to tell about Heres a commercial for a prospective yourself is to memorize-literally memorize new graduate: a one to two-minute commercial about I have always found the business world yourself. both exciting and challenging. Thats why Think about what a commercial does. It I choose to study business, and Ive also focuses on selling a product in a minuscule found I love it even more because of that, amount of time. It grabs your attention I cant wait to start working in a MNC. immediately with information of your interest. Then it sells why you should buy I will graduate in May from the university of Pune with a Bachelor of Arts in the product. Economics, I was feature writer in college Thats exactly what your commercial magazine. At the same time, I managed to
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should do. Grab interviewers interest with maintain high marks in our pre-degree. I a confident statement about yourself and was even the secretary of the dramatic then support that statement with specific association. It gave me a great exposure to facts. Concentrate on selling your strong leadership through organizing activities points tell employers exactly why they pertaining to my role. Working and should hire you instead of someone else. attending college full-time taught me to organize and priorities for superior time The better you know your commercials, management skills- I wouldnt have the more confident youll feel. Memorize succeeded without these skills. your commercial and practice it until it Considering the demand of deadlines, I sounds natural, Just like an actor, you see these skills aare especially important in need to learn your script and deliver it in a career. character. The information in your commercial is too important to leave anything out. So make sure that you know it backwards and forwards. Heres another, shorter example: I will graduate in June from the University of Pune with a major in marketing. Through a series of students jobs, I managed to earn half my college expenses. But I also found time to participate in campus activities- for instance; I was elected vice president of the student marketing club. Usually, I have an upbeat outlook about life. I dont have any trouble digging in and getting started on a project. I like working with people and I especially like doing my best to persuade people.

Your commercial can include any of the following information: Your academic degree Position of leadership in different associations of clubs. Specific skill applicable to the careers. Specific training either on computer or any profession. Date of expected graduation (if applicable) Honors of achievements goals (not long-term) Career philosophy (not pretentious or preachy)

Tell us about your family background This question is asked by the interviewers in order to determine the social, cultural, religious and economic strata you come from. It could reflect your basic attitudes. The best approach for such a question is to bring out not only your parentage and background but also some of the good principles you have learnt. For example, you may be able to say that you have been
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brought up in a disciplined atmosphere where punctuality, respect for elders, etc. is a way of life, You may also be able to mention some of the human values like honesty, truthfulness, etc.. Which you have imbibed as a result of your family upbringing. Emphasize brothers and sisters accomplishments and achievements. In all cases, it would be safe to talk of the human value taught to you irrespective of what background you come from.

How do you spend your spare time? This is a loaded question, which can give considerable clue to your personality. If your spare time activities are reading, painting, cooking, listening to music and the like, you are likely to be creative, introvert, or a loner. If your sports activities are mainly individual sports such as swimming, athletics, tennis, badminton, etc. You are again likely to be interpreted as a loner. Other games like football, hockey, basketball, etc. are likely to indicate you as a team man who can get along well with others. Neither of these are right or wrong nor are they absolutely true indicators. Those who appear to be group oriented are likely to be preferred.

Another aspect of how you spend your time is whether you take on active or passive pursuits. If you are active, you would play games, go on sight- seeing or tours, or undertake any activity that involves physical effort. Interviewers will prefer the passive type for sedentary desk jobs whereas an active person is preferred or job which involve traveling for any predominant physical activity.

Why did you choose your particular field of work? This is asked to ascertain your temperament, attitude, and personal qualities. It is advisable at this point to bring out your best qualities linking them with the job. For example, you may say that you chose a sales job because you are an extrovert, love travelling and you enjoy meeting people and this job gives you the opportunity to do so. Never give an answer like youve advised to take up this job by so and so, or that you really dont like it but you dont have any choice and so on. Whatever may be your reasons for choosing a particular line, support and substantiate it fully since you are now applying for the job.

Where do you see yourself in 5-7 years time? This question is aimed at ascertaining your aspirations, It is necessary that you are reasonably ambitious in your aspiration so that your performance is conducive to your growth. At the same time, you should be realistic and should not be out of context with reality. Today it is advisably to reveal you attitude and your interest for personal growth. You have to design your answer in such a away that above requirement becomes self revealing. Your aspiration should be for a
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career and not for a job.

TYPES OF INTERVIEW

In order to find out about this whole man, different types of interviews are held as given below

Direct Interview:

This is almost a question-answer session type, where the interviewer gets a proper look at the candidates and assesses his suitability through a series of questions. Direct interview is usually not a planned affair. Sometimes the candidate does not get the opportunity to expose himself. The candidate has to look for proper opportunity to expose himself more.

Indirect Interview

In this type, some open questions are asked like What are your views on the general economic condition of our country? etc. Here the candidate will have to talk more to give his views which give ample opportunity to the interviewer to judge the candidates conviction of thought, clarity of speech, depth of knowledge, etc.

Hence, it will be in the candidates interest to state his reply in a precise form point by point so that time could be properly utilized by him.

i)

Pattern/Guided Interview:

Instead of making the interview absolutely open as in the indirect interview situation, in the pattern interview, certain planning is already done as to the areas to be covered in the interview and also the types of the questions to be asked to know more about the candidate. This facilitates the interviewer to cover wider area.

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ii)

Stress Interview:

This is used normally for selection to the post where the candidate would invariably be under stress. There are different variations of the stress interview starting from being put in awkward situations by asking some very ticklish questions, What the interviewer is trying to find out is how a person reacts in such a stress situation. i.e. whether he gets ruffled, upset, nervous or maintains a tolerable balance of mind to face the situation. In some interviews, they try to unsettle the candidate as one of the interviewers stands behind the candidate during the interview process.

iii)

Group Interview:

This helps in finding out how the candidate reacts to a group and what traits he exhibits while dealing with the group .This is done in two ways i.e.

By Group Discussion By Group Task

In the Group Discussion a general topic is thrown open for discussion, say, topics like, No change is possible without revolution or in law nothing is certain but expenses or Every man for himself only etc. The members are initially given opportunity to express their viewpoints for about a minute each and then have open discussion. The total duration could be about 30 minutes.

Before starting the actual discussion the candidates are given adequate time to gather their thoughts and jot it down before they start speaking.

The points being judged in this situation are as follows:

a)

Address, i.e. Devotion with direction of attention, skill, energies.

b)

Articulation, i.e. Capable of clear expression

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c)

Participation, i.e. sharing

d)

Logical presentation of things

e)

Depth of knowledge and quality of ideas.

f)

Co-ordination, i.e. adjustment of relation.

In the Group Task some problem is given with adequate information made available to solve the problem. It is for the group to decide how to go about this task and arrive at a consensus solution. For this naturally they have to analyze the facts, plan their action, decide on different results and finally come to conclusion.

The traits which are being observed for each individuals in performing the group task are:

Ability to follow direction

Cooperative attitude

Ability to plan

Application

Leadership

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Communication

It is interesting to note that if one observes carefully the performance both in discussion as well as group task then one can more or less come to the conclusion regarding some predominant traits of the individuals.

The process could be an end in itself for selection of candidates or it could be that those who come out successfully in this may be required to appear in further interviews.

Panel Interview:

In this situation the candidate has to face a panel of interviewers ranging from about 3 to 10-12 in number. It is obvious that for a candidate, this becomes more of a stressful situation than one-to-one interview. This is because while the candidate is replying there would be so many to observe him and it is also not certain that from which corner what type of question will follow. Hence, it requires great acumen onthe part of the candidate to keep the members of the panel in good humor and yet present his best form possible.

Who are the members in the interview Board?

Interview Board invariably consists of persons having adequate knowledge in their own field and with long years of practical experience.

In some Boards there can be psychiatrists silently observing the performance of the candidates and making notes. There can be experts on certain field depending on the job and of course there would be senior persons from the organization itself both of technical as well as nontechnical background.

In spite of the Board Members being experienced and trying to be objective, interview is a
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subjective situation where human failures and weaknesses in Board Members cannot be completely eliminated. Knowingly or unknowingly some bias, prejudices, halo effect, hunches, etc. creep in to color the vision of the interviewers. For example, some might be tempted to give a little bit more marks to candidates from his own state, religion or institutions or for having similar hobbies as the interviewer. But the interview Board tries to minimize the negative effects of it by having some sort of discussion after each candidate and deciding on a probable gradation like excellent, very good, average, below average etc. To further narrow down the differences, in some Boards they discuss if a candidate is good, or +good i.e whether he comes in the higher range or the lower range of the marks allotted for the category good. Thus the members try to become as objective as possible within the given situation.

While some interview Boards are not extra helpful to the candidates there are some Boards where some member or the other comes to the rescue of the candidate in difficulty or ask some leading question to help the candidate. For example one candidate was asked where Vizag Steel Plant is. On his answering that is in Tamil Nadu a Member of the Board gave him three choices by saying. You decide whether it is in Tamil Nadu or Andhar Pardesh or Karnataka. Thus, an opportunity provided to give the correct answer was missed. Generally the main purpose of the interview Board is to select a person and not reject him and hence they try to make the atmosphere as congenial as possible for the candidate to give his best. But it is for the candidate to take advantage.

What exactly is being assessed in the interview? As already stated earlier, interviewers are trying to find out the many facets of the candidate and not only his intellectual capability. Today the candidates are expected to take sufficient interest in the events, which are happening around him-self, modern current thoughts, new discoveries, current affairs, society at large. Hence in the interview various traits are being assessed and not only his ability to perform a particular type of job. In an open competition, ones family background should not matter but it is seen that the family background influences a lot and is projected in the attitude and behavior of the candidates and also at times gives indication whether the candidate would really fit in a particular circumstance.. Knowing the family background enables the interviewers to know the candidate better. For example, a simple question was asked to many candidates like What is our family like? Many candidates did not mention about their mothers while talking of their family. When further asked about mother, many felt shy to tell that their mother is a housewife, as if, unless one has a working mother, she not counted as one of the family, where as in many families it is
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the mother who plays a pivotal role in bringing up the children. Hence, what the interviewers are trying to find out can be listed as under: Physical make up: i.e., Physique, Appearance, Manners, etc. How agreeable are his bearings, speeches and appearance? Attainments: What type of education he had and how has he fared? Whether he has any training or specialization in any particular field?

Knowledge: Breadth and depth of understanding in his discipline and in general knowledge also.

General Intelligence: How quick is his comprehension? Is he mentally alert: Is his exposition clear and logical?

Analytical Mind: Can he make in depth diagnosis and critically analyze? Are the solutions logical? How balanced is his judgment? Has he the critical power of assimilation?

Special attitude/interest: Does he possess any special interest? How deeply is he involved in that? What is the variety and depth of interest? Is he an introvert or extrovert in his interest? Is he especially good for something?

Personality: Communication:
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With clear and logical exposition.

Mental Caliber: Understands Problems, makes decision.

Emotional Stability: Confident of his ability, capability of meeting stress, capability of talking about strength and weaknesses, capability to appreciate others viewpoints which are opposed to his own.

Motivation: Responsibility oriented achievement and development oriented willingness and keenness to work.

Disposition: Dependability, Persistency, Social, self-reliance. How acceptable does he make himself to others?

His self-restraint. Ability to communicate and listen.

Circumstances: His family life. What others do in the family?

Leadership:

Ability to take risk. Ability to make others follow his leadership. Efforts to improve his own self. Capacity to take negative feedback.

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Sensitivity to the environment: Society, Country, the World.

Moral Integrity There could be some more. Needless to say that all these qualities are desirable in a person but it will be a Utopian idea to expect anybody to posses all these qualities to the maximum. Hence, the interviewer concentrates on certain areas, which will be more relevant to the nature of the job.

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